Vox Pop: In this image is Iolanthe from Ruby Assembly a) about to be abducted by aliens a la The X-Files or b) enjoying a pleasant evening at the Gertrude Street Projection Festival? If you picked the latter, you’d be right. Last week we headed down to Gertrude Street in Fitzroy, where ambling groups of warmly rugged-up Melbournians meandered, looking upwards to capture the brilliant projections on buildings big and small.
The Atherton Gardens Housing Commission estate was lit up with a rotating schema of large scale projections – my favorite were the mournful, cheeky faces of the Fornasetti ladies. I wondered what the housing estate’s community thought of the projection festival. Did it bother them, the lights peeking through their windows? Did they like it, and did it make them feel differently about their homes?
I also enjoyed this projection series of what were essentially mugshots of early Melbournians overlaid with their (often petty) crimes. In our mind’s eye, we like to believe that we are so different from our forebears – that technology and time sets us apart. In reality, the faces of those projected above look as contemporary as any visage we’d see on the street today.
Rose Chong’s hypnotic window display, which gave the optical illusion of x-ray vision, as if one were a human microscope. Crowds stood mesmerised by this piece, shining whitely into the night.
If you missed out on this year’s delight, make sure to follow the Gertrude Street Projection Festival Facebook and attend in 2015.
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